London, 31st October 2024
Today, Safe Access Zones have been implemented around abortion clinics in England and Wales, ending decades of harassment and intimidation of people accessing or providing abortion care.
Abortion clinic Safe Access Zones (also known as ‘buffer zones’) will make it an offence to influence, obstruct, or harass anyone within 150 metres of a clinic, hospital, or any premises providing services.
Safe Access Zones were signed into law in May 2023. This followed Parliament voting in favour of national legislation on Safe Access Zones in November 2022, in a cross-party show of support for reproductive rights.
What is abortion clinic harassment?
Every week, 2000 people access abortion care from a clinic which has been subject to harassment. Anti-choice behaviour can take many forms and tends to target women.
Before Safe Access Zone implementation, our clients and staff regularly experienced anti-choice harassment, being targeted for accessing healthcare and for doing their jobs.
Harassment from anti-choice protestors included:
- Publicly accusing clients and staff of being ‘murderers’.
- Filming and photographing clients accessing healthcare.
- Knocking on client and staff car windows when arriving or leaving, disrupting healthcare access.
- Handing out misleading medical information, putting client safety at risk.
- Banging on, and barricading, clinic doors to prevent access to healthcare.
The journey to national Safe Access Zones
In 2018, MSI Reproductive Choices UK’s Ealing (West London) clinic became the first in the country to benefit from a Safe Access Zone. The local Safe Access Zone was incredibly beneficial for those accessing the clinic whether as a client, to support a client, or as a team member. Eventually, Richmond, Manchester, Bournemouth and Birmingham councils followed suit, introducing Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPOs) and transforming the experience of those providing and accessing care in these areas.
Whilst the introduction of a small number of local Safe Access Zones was a step in the right direction, the right to have a safe abortion confidentially and with dignity should not depend upon where you live. This is why we continued our fight for national legislation, so we could put this postcode lottery of harassment to an end.
After several attempts from MPs like Rupa Huq (whose constituents were impacted by the anti-choice groups outside our Ealing clinic), Stella Creasy’s amendment to introduce national Safe Access Zones was passed in October 2022, with support from MPs across all major political parties. In May 2023, Safe Access Zones were signed into law in England and Wales. Since then, we have been campaigning for Safe Access Zones to be implemented and for the law to be commenced as a matter of urgency – as harassment outside our clinics continued to get worse.
We are proud to have campaigned for Safe Access Zones along with our partners including the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare (FSRH), and Sister Supporter.
Read more on the journey to national Safe Access Zones here.
“People seeking an abortion in England and Wales will now be able to access care without harassment and intimidation on the clinic doorsteps.”
Today, MSI Reproductive Choices’ UK Head of External Affairs Louise McCudden, shared:
“After years of fighting for national Safe Access Zones, we are delighted that the government has brought them into force.
“People seeking an abortion in England and Wales will now be able to access care without harassment and intimidation on the clinic doorsteps.
“As well as the harassment we experience outside our UK clinics, as a global provider, we are seeing very real rollbacks on reproductive rights, most notably in the United States since the reversal of Roe v Wade. As anti-choice campaigners around the world escalate their tactics, trying to manipulate women with misinformation, this step from the UK government sends a powerful message that they stand with women and girls.”
Everyone deserves to access and provide abortion care without fear of anti-choice harassment. Now, across all four nations in the UK, this will be a reality.
For further information please contact:
Email: [email protected]
Telephone: +44 (0) 7769 166 516
To find out more
To read more about abortion clinic Safe Access Zones, click on the links below:
